General FAQ Questions:

Who is required to register and pay the Transient Lodgings tax to the City?

Registration requirement: Portland hotel, B&B, and vacation rental operators who provide lodging on a transient (non-permanent) basis for eight days or more days in a calendar year and/or operators who advertise or market space for rent to the general public are required to register with the Transient Lodging Tax Program.

Once registered, how do I file Transient Lodgings taxes with the Revenue Division?

Transient Lodging Tax (TLT) accounts set up to report and remit TL taxes to the Revenue Division on a quarterly basis. The quarterly reporting schedule is provided on the reverse side of the TLT Quarterly Report.

However, Booking Agents, as defined in PCC 6.04.010 D are required to report and remit TL taxes to the Revenue Division on a monthly basis. If you are uncertain as to whether you are considered to be a Booking Agent by the City of Portland, please contact our office at 503-865-2857.

How do I know if a particular business is paying the Transient Lodgings tax?

Are there any exemptions?

Yes. There are five types of allowable exemptions:

Monthly Renter Exemption

Taken as a deduction on Line 2 of the tax report

Eligible exemptions:

Occupants renting space for more than 30 consecutive calendar days. The guest is eligible for a refund or credit for the 1st 30 days if they stay 31 days or longer without a break. Tax should no longer be charged starting day 31

People who rent a room on a monthly basis and pay all at once for the entire month (regardless of the number of days in such a month)

Incidental Use Exemption

Owners who rent private homes, vacation cabins, or a like facility for 7 days or less within a calendar year and do not advertise space for rent are not required to collect the occupancy tax. Bed and Breakfast Homes and Inns do not qualify under this incidents/use exemption.

Medical and Government Facilities Exemption

Any occupant in a hospital room, medical or mental health facility, convalescent home, home for aged people, or a government-owned and operated public institution

Emergency Shelter/Disaster Relief Exemption

Taken as a deduction on Line 5 of the tax report

Any person housed through an emergency shelter or disaster program where the rent is paid with government assistance funds.

Federal Government Exemption

Taken as a deduction on Line 3 of the tax report

Federal Government employees traveling on official government business, who presents an official Government Exemption Certificate or official travel authorization, is exempt from paying the Transient Lodgings tax. Go to qualifying federal employees

How do I take a deduction/exemption?

Qualifying deductions are claimed on lines 2 – 5 of the tax report.

Line 2: Rent by Month: Amount of rents received that are paid on a monthly basis, or those guests who stayed, and paid, for more than 30 consecutive days. You can only deduct amounts for which you have documentation and have not collected any tax. If you collected and retained the tax, you must remit it to the City. Deductions that cannot be supported with documentation will be disallowed and the operator will owe the tax.

Line 3: Government Exemptions: Amount of FEDERAL Government exemptions plus American Red Cross exemptions or Amtrak exemptions. You must be able to support this amount with copies of official government certificates. Red Cross and Amtrak exemptions must also be supported with verification. Deductions that cannot be supported with documentation will be disallowed and the operator will owe the tax. Go to qualifying federal employees

Line 4: Uncollectible Taxable Rent: Any rent that became uncollectible (due to NSF check or invalid charge card) may be deducted from Gross Rents only if the amount was originally included in Gross Rents. You can only deduct amounts for which you have documentation and have not collected any tax. Only actual bad debts make be taken as a deduction. No allowances or estimates are acceptable. Deductions that cannot be supported with documentation will be disallowed and the operator will owe the tax.

Line 5: Other Deductions: If you accept emergency housing vouchers, the rent is deducted here. Vouchers must be paid directly with government assistance funds. In order to support your deduction, you must keep a copy of all vouchers. Deductions that cannot be supported with documentation will be disallowed and the operator will owe the tax.

Are 501-c3 organizations (nonprofits) exempt from paying the TL tax?

Who qualifies as a federal government employee for the purposes of the government exemption?

To get this exemption, a guest must be a current employee of a federal agency. The guest must be traveling on official business and their travel expenses, including the lodging bill, must be paid by the federal government, either directly, or by reimbursement.

Federal employees are defined as an employee of a federal governmental department, agency or instrumentality (e.g., IRS, FDA, US Forest Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs). By an act of Congress, additional exemptions are granted for employees of the American Red Cross, Amtrak, and Federal Credit Unions traveling on official business.

Federal employees do not work for the state, county, municipal or tribal government.

There is no exemption for federal contractors, as they are not employees of the federal government.

The Delinquent Date is the date the report is late and penalty and interest charges are assessed:

“All amounts of such taxes collected by any operator are due and payable to the Tax Administrator on the 15th day of the following month for the preceding 3 months; and are delinquent on the last day of the month in which they are due. If the last day of the month falls on a holiday or weekend, amounts are delinquent on the first business day that follows.” PCC 6.04.070 A

Quarterly Tax Report Delinquent Dates

This is the date that reports are considered late and are charged penalties and interest:

1st Quarter: April 30

2nd Quarter: July 31

3rd Quarter: October 31

4th Quarter: January 31

Avoid penalties & interest: Postmark or deliver reports to the Revenue Bureau before the last day of the due date month

Remember: Collected taxes are not available funds for your operations. You are required to segregate these funds to ensure they can be paid when due.

What is a credit?

In cases where a tax payment exceeds the amount of tax due, the City will notify the operator in writing that they have a credit. Credits must be claimed on the next tax report. Unclaimed credits will not be automatically applied.

This will open the PDF in Reader and you should be able to fill in the fields and the form will calculate.Attention Chrome Users: By default, Chrome uses a built-in PDF viewer to open PDFs. This will cause a calculation error in the Transient Lodging reporting forms. If you have disabled the built-in PDF viewer, Chrome will use Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader to display PDFs. You must use Adobe to get a correctly calculated Transient Lodging reporting form. You should chose Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader as your default PDF viewer in Chrome. Here's how:

1.) Enter chrome://plugins into your address bar.

2.) Scroll down to either Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader (you will only see them if you have them installed).

Short Term Rental FAQ Questions:

What is the agreement between Airbnb and the City of Portland?

Beginning July 1, 2014, Airbnb began collecting the 11.5% combined City of Portland and Multnomah County Transient Lodging Tax on reservations made through the Airbnb platform. Airbnb is remitting the Transient Lodging Tax to the City on behalf of operators (hosts) on a monthly basis.

I use the Airbnb platform to rent space. Am I required to report transient lodging taxes to the City of Portland?

If you rent space exclusively through the Airbnb platform, then you are required to register with the Transient Lodging Tax program. Please visit our website to access the TL Registration form at: www.portlandoregon.gov/revenue/article/34924. For months booked entirely through Airbnb, you are not required to submit Transient Lodging Tax reports to the City.

If you rent space through Airbnb and any other reservation platform, then you are required to both register with the Transient Lodging Tax program and to collect, report and remit Transient Lodging taxes to the city on a quarterly basis. You will be remitting the Transient Lodging taxes collected on the reservations made using other reservation platforms. Note: Airbnb rents are deducted on line 5 (Other Allowable Deductions) of the quarterly reporting form. Please visit our website to access the TL Quarterly Reporting form at: https://www.portlandoregon.gov/revenue/29560.

I am a Booking Agent or Online Travel Company (OTC). Once registered, how do I file transient lodging taxes?

Booking Agents, as defined in PCC 6.04.010 D, and Online Travel Companies (as of July 1, 2015) are required to report and remit TL taxes to the Revenue Division on a monthly basis. The monthly reporting schedule is provided on the reverse side of the new Online Travel Company (OTC) / Booking Agent Monthly Reporting Form. If you are uncertain as to whether you are considered to be a Booking Agent by the City of Portland, please contact our office at 503-865-2857.

Did you rent space on a short term basis in the City of Portland before July 1, 2014?

You are required toregister with the Transient Lodging Tax program. You must begin collecting and remitting Transient Lodging taxes as of July 1, 2014. Note: Airbnb rents are only deductible beginning with the third quarter of 2014. Airbnb is not an allowable deduction before the third quarter of 2014. Please visit our website to access the TL Quarterly Reporting form at: https://www.portlandoregon.gov/revenue/29560.